231 research outputs found

    Community Mobility and Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

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    Importance Marked elevation in levels of depressive symptoms compared with historical norms have been described during the COVID-19 pandemic, and understanding the extent to which these are associated with diminished in-person social interaction could inform public health planning for future pandemics or other disasters. Objective To describe the association between living in a US county with diminished mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic and self-reported depressive symptoms, while accounting for potential local and state-level confounding factors. Design, Setting, and Participants This survey study used 18 waves of a nonprobability internet survey conducted in the United States between May 2020 and April 2022. Participants included respondents who were 18 years and older and lived in 1 of the 50 US states or Washington DC. Main Outcome and Measure Depressive symptoms measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9); county-level community mobility estimates from mobile apps; COVID-19 policies at the US state level from the Oxford stringency index. Results The 192 271 survey respondents had a mean (SD) of age 43.1 (16.5) years, and 768 (0.4%) were American Indian or Alaska Native individuals, 11 448 (6.0%) were Asian individuals, 20 277 (10.5%) were Black individuals, 15 036 (7.8%) were Hispanic individuals, 1975 (1.0%) were Pacific Islander individuals, 138 702 (72.1%) were White individuals, and 4065 (2.1%) were individuals of another race. Additionally, 126 381 respondents (65.7%) identified as female and 65 890 (34.3%) as male. Mean (SD) depression severity by PHQ-9 was 7.2 (6.8). In a mixed-effects linear regression model, the mean county-level proportion of individuals not leaving home was associated with a greater level of depression symptoms (β, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.57-3.58) after adjustment for individual sociodemographic features. Results were similar after the inclusion in regression models of local COVID-19 activity, weather, and county-level economic features, and persisted after widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccination. They were attenuated by the inclusion of state-level pandemic restrictions. Two restrictions, mandatory mask-wearing in public (β, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.15-0.30) and policies cancelling public events (β, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.22-0.51), demonstrated modest independent associations with depressive symptom severity. Conclusions and Relevance In this study, depressive symptoms were greater in locales and times with diminished community mobility. Strategies to understand the potential public health consequences of pandemic responses are needed

    Misinformation, Trust, and Use of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19

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    Importance The COVID-19 pandemic has been notable for the widespread dissemination of misinformation regarding the virus and appropriate treatment. Objective To quantify the prevalence of non–evidence-based treatment for COVID-19 in the US and the association between such treatment and endorsement of misinformation as well as lack of trust in physicians and scientists. Design, Setting, and Participants This single-wave, population-based, nonprobability internet survey study was conducted between December 22, 2022, and January 16, 2023, in US residents 18 years or older who reported prior COVID-19 infection. Main Outcome and Measure Self-reported use of ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, endorsing false statements related to COVID-19 vaccination, self-reported trust in various institutions, conspiratorial thinking measured by the American Conspiracy Thinking Scale, and news sources. Results A total of 13 438 individuals (mean [SD] age, 42.7 [16.1] years; 9150 [68.1%] female and 4288 [31.9%] male) who reported prior COVID-19 infection were included in this study. In this cohort, 799 (5.9%) reported prior use of hydroxychloroquine (527 [3.9%]) or ivermectin (440 [3.3%]). In regression models including sociodemographic features as well as political affiliation, those who endorsed at least 1 item of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation were more likely to receive non–evidence-based medication (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.86; 95% CI, 2.28-3.58). Those reporting trust in physicians and hospitals (adjusted OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.56-0.98) and in scientists (adjusted OR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.51-0.79) were less likely to receive non–evidence-based medication. Respondents reporting trust in social media (adjusted OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 2.00-2.87) and in Donald Trump (adjusted OR, 2.97; 95% CI, 2.34-3.78) were more likely to have taken non–evidence-based medication. Individuals with greater scores on the American Conspiracy Thinking Scale were more likely to have received non–evidence-based medications (unadjusted OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.06-1.11; adjusted OR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.07-1.13). Conclusions and Relevance In this survey study of US adults, endorsement of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of trust in physicians or scientists, conspiracy-mindedness, and the nature of news sources were associated with receiving non–evidence-based treatment for COVID-19. These results suggest that the potential harms of misinformation may extend to the use of ineffective and potentially toxic treatments in addition to avoidance of health-promoting behaviors

    Efficacy and Tolerability of Adjunctive Intravenous Sodium Nitroprusside Treatment for Outpatients With Schizophrenia: A Randomized Clinical Trial

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    Importance: Antipsychotic medications for the treatment of schizophrenia have limitations, and new treatments are needed. A prior pilot investigation suggested that adjunctive sodium nitroprusside (SNP) administered intravenously had rapid efficacy in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Objective: To determine the efficacy and tolerability of intravenous SNP infused at a rate of 0.5 mug/kg/min for 4 hours in patients with schizophrenia with some degree of treatment resistance. Design, Setting, and Participants: Multicenter, randomized, double-blind acute treatment study using a sequential parallel comparison design conducted in two 2-week phases at 4 academic medical centers beginning May 20, 2015, and ending March 31, 2017. Participants were adults 18 to 65 years of age with a diagnosis of schizophrenia as confirmed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, taking antipsychotic medication for at least 8 weeks, and had at least 1 failed trial of an antipsychotic medication within the past year. A total of 90 participants consented, 60 participants enrolled, and 52 participants were included in the analyses. A modified intent-to-treat analysis was used. Interventions: Participants were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to 1 of 3 treatment sequences: SNP and SNP, placebo and SNP, and placebo and placebo. The SNP and SNP group received SNP in phase 1 and SNP in phase 2 for the purpose of blinding, but the data from phase 2 were not included in the results. The placebo and SNP group received placebo in phase 1 and SNP in phase 2. If there was no response to placebo in phase 1, data from phase 2 were included in the analyses. The placebo and placebo group received placebo in both phases; if there was no response to placebo in phase 1, data from phase 2 were included in the analyses. Main Outcomes and Measures: Effectiveness of SNP compared with placebo in improving Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total, positive, and negative scores across each 2-week phase. Results: Fifty-two participants (12 women and 40 men) were included in the study. In the SNP and SNP group, the mean (SD) age was 47.1 (10.5) years. In the placebo and SNP group, the mean (SD) age was 45.9 (12.3) years. In the placebo and placebo group, the mean (SD) age was 40.4 (11.0) years. There were no significant differences between the SNP and placebo groups at baseline or in change from baseline for PANSS-total (weighted beta = -1.04; z = -0.59; P = .57), PANSS-positive (weighted beta = -0.62; z = -0.93; P = .35), or PANSS-negative (weighted beta = -0.12; z = -0.19; P = .85) scores. No significant differences in safety or tolerability measures were identified. Conclusions and Relevance: Although intravenous SNP is well tolerated, it was not an efficacious adjunctive treatment of positive or negative symptoms of psychosis among outpatients with schizophrenia with prior history of treatment resistance. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02164981

    Genetic validation of bipolar disorder identified by automated phenotyping using electronic health records

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    Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heritable mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania and depression. Although genomewide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified genetic loci contributing to BD risk, sample size has become a rate-limiting obstacle to genetic discovery. Electronic health records (EHRs) represent a vast but relatively untapped resource for high-throughput phenotyping. As part of the International Cohort Collection for Bipolar Disorder (ICCBD), we previously validated automated EHR-based phenotyping algorithms for BD against in-person diagnostic interviews (Castro et al. Am J Psychiatry 172:363–372, 2015). Here, we establish the genetic validity of these phenotypes by determining their genetic correlation with traditionally ascertained samples. Case and control algorithms were derived from structured and narrative text in the Partners Healthcare system comprising more than 4.6 million patients over 20 years. Genomewide genotype data for 3330 BD cases and 3952 controls of European ancestry were used to estimate SNP-based heritability (h2g) and genetic correlation (rg) between EHR-based phenotype definitions and traditionally ascertained BD cases in GWAS by the ICCBD and Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) using LD score regression. We evaluated BD cases identified using 4 EHR-based algorithms: an NLP-based algorithm (95-NLP) and three rule-based algorithms using codified EHR with decreasing levels of stringency—“coded-strict”, “coded-broad”, and “coded-broad based on a single clinical encounter” (coded-broad-SV). The analytic sample comprised 862 95-NLP, 1968 coded-strict, 2581 coded-broad, 408 coded-broad-SV BD cases, and 3 952 controls. The estimated h2g were 0.24 (p = 0.015), 0.09 (p = 0.064), 0.13 (p = 0.003), 0.00 (p = 0.591) for 95-NLP, coded-strict, coded-broad and coded-broad-SV BD, respectively. The h2g for all EHR-based cases combined except coded-broad-SV (excluded due to 0 h2g) was 0.12 (p = 0.004). These h2g were lower or similar to the h2g observed by the ICCBD + PGCBD (0.23, p = 3.17E−80, total N = 33,181). However, the rg between ICCBD + PGCBD and the EHR-based cases were high for 95-NLP (0.66, p = 3.69 × 10–5), coded-strict (1.00, p = 2.40 × 10−4), and coded-broad (0.74, p = 8.11 × 10–7). The rg between EHR-based BD definitions ranged from 0.90 to 0.98. These results provide the first genetic validation of automated EHR-based phenotyping for BD and suggest that this approach identifies cases that are highly genetically correlated with those ascertained through conventional methods. High throughput phenotyping using the large data resources available in EHRs represents a viable method for accelerating psychiatric genetic research

    Dysregulated protocadherin-pathway activity as an intrinsic defect in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical interneurons from subjects with schizophrenia.

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    We generated cortical interneurons (cINs) from induced pluripotent stem cells derived from 14 healthy controls and 14 subjects with schizophrenia. Both healthy control cINs and schizophrenia cINs were authentic, fired spontaneously, received functional excitatory inputs from host neurons, and induced GABA-mediated inhibition in host neurons in vivo. However, schizophrenia cINs had dysregulated expression of protocadherin genes, which lie within documented schizophrenia loci. Mice lacking protocadherin-α showed defective arborization and synaptic density of prefrontal cortex cINs and behavioral abnormalities. Schizophrenia cINs similarly showed defects in synaptic density and arborization that were reversed by inhibitors of protein kinase C, a downstream kinase in the protocadherin pathway. These findings reveal an intrinsic abnormality in schizophrenia cINs in the absence of any circuit-driven pathology. They also demonstrate the utility of homogenous and functional populations of a relevant neuronal subtype for probing pathogenesis mechanisms during development
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